Dr. Greg Constable graduated with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science and a Master of Agricultural Science, University of Sydney. He also holds a PhD from the Australian National University, Canberra.
As both an agronomist and plant breeder, Greg made significant contributions to the development of scientifically based farming approaches to agriculture and the development of novel breeding strategies for increased yield and water use efficiency in cotton that have added value to the GM cotton varieties being developed in his program.
Greg was the first Director of the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Sustainable Cotton Production, through the planning phase in 1992, its successful establishment in 1993, and up to its renewal in 1999 as the Australian Cotton CRC. His research interests included cotton breeding, crop physiology and management systems. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the School of Crop Sciences, University of Sydney.
In 2003, the influential Australian business magazine the Bulletin, judged Dr Constable ‘Australia’s smartest scientist’. Some of his other awards include:
- 2011 CSIRO Chairman’s Medal with Danny Llewellyn, Warwick Stiller, Shiming Liu, Peter Reid and members of the cotton breeding and biotechnology teams
- 2008 Outstanding Research Award in Cotton Physiology at the US Beltwide Cotton Conferences
- 2006 ATSE Clunies Ross Award with Danny Llewellyn and Gary Fitt
- 2006 Australian Cotton Growers Research Association Researcher of the Year
- 2005 Australian Government Prize for Rural innovation (team)
- 2003 CSIRO Chairman’s Medal with Danny Llewellyn
- 2001 Centenary Medal for services to plant production and processing with Danny Llewellyn
- 1984 Australian Cotton Growers Research Association Researcher of the Year.
Greg retired from CSIRO in 2017 but still maintains an interest in cotton research supervising some postgraduate students.